Lets get straight into it.
Here are the enemy fan forums of the week:
Rams on Demand
http://www.ramsondemand.com/forums/rams-nfl-talk.26/
What they're saying:
Lots of history between these two great franchises....my dad still gets irritated when talking about the playoff game in 1977 when the Rams were finally supposed to beat the Vikings in the playoffs but lost...
Or our favorite, the beat down in St. Louis en route to the super bowl! :yess:
The Rams have been a bit strange this year...two great wins against the Seahawks and Cardinals. Bad loss to the Redskins. Loss at home to the Steelers, and a loss at Lambeau.....then two wins at home over inferior opponents. And the most irritated I was watching any of those games? The two wins over inferior opponents. The score looks good, but the offense only converted two or three 3rd downs in those games COMBINED - most teams do that on one drive. I think the Arizona and GB games will show you what we're all about - especially because those are probably the two best teams in the NFC. Both show you what the defense and running game can do, and then you have Foles at his best and at his worst. All other games it's kind of been something in between that.
In terms of recent memory, Rams fans are still feeling that beat down you guys put on us last week on opening day. Hopefully the players remember it as well.
Our offensive line struggles with blitzes, especially of the complex nature, so I don't see much of a passing game for us in this one - BUT, I said the exact same thing before the Arizona game. I've seen how Zimmer likes to put LBs right over the gaps and then either send them or drop them back...that's a nightmare for our offense...the Rams have to establish a passing game or soon there will be 11 guys in the box.
On defense, we've played two and a half of the best QBs in the NFL this year and still field a top 5 unit. The Vikings will have to establish the run and try to utilize a quick passing game. Problem with that will be that our secondary has played outstanding.
To me this will be pretty simple...whomever has more success running the ball will win the game. I don't feel good because it's at Minnesota and you guys seem to have our number the last few years. Wouldn't be surprised if this game ended 9-6.
I don't take any team lightly and the Vikings are 3-0 at home.
But- let's be fair, all 5 of your wins came against teams with a combined 8 wins and 23 losses.
Your' two losses are against teams with 9 wins and 6 losses. Mainly because Denver is 7-0.
You lost to SF who is terrible (agreed, we all have bad losses sometimes). You had on tough loss to Denver which is a difficult place to win for anyone.
On our side, we have 4 wins against teams that have 14 wins and 18 losses
Our 3 losses are against teams with 13 wins and 9 losses including losing to Pitt by 6 and letting Green Bay escape because Nick Foles threw 4 game killing INT's.
I don't want to sound like you're not good, I think the Vikings are decent. But outside of Denver you've played a really soft schedule. We've played some of the best offenses in the league in Pitt, Green Bay and the best defenses in the league as well. Feel free to look that up, it's 100% accurate.
We'll see what happens this weekend. But I'd guess if you played our early schedule you would be 3-4 at best.
yep. biggest game of the season
gotta get this one
Minn #3 in the league in points allowed
Rams are #5
My dad is a Vikings Fan so lemme tell you:
First, we better win next week.
Second, they're not THAT good. Blown out by the niners and beat the Chiefs, lions twice, and looked horrible today. We can beat them.
We play up to teams - our tendency has been to play down to other teams level though. That said. Vikings are not that good. Very overrated team in fact.
They needed a last second field goal to beat the Bears, which is worse than any Rams underwhelming performance this year IMO. I'd hardly call the Vikings a "really good team". They are solid. But just like our Rams, they are still in the 2nd tier of quality football clubs. A notch below the heavyweights.
I definitely think this team is up to the task. As with every other week, it will hinge on our offense. Can they perform competently? If so, our defence will give us a chance to win. Foles looked pretty sharp today and the o-line was fine. Unfortunately, we had several key drops. We'll need to fix those if we hope to come away from Minnesota with the W.
Watching Gurley v Peterson should be a treat. Both teams have solid defences with mediocre o-lines. We'll see what side can help their RB out by winning the trenches.
We owe the Vikas one from last year.
yes it is an important game, but i dont think Minnesota is as good as the Seahawks or Cardinals both of who we beat, or the Packers or Steelers both of who we had our chances to beat. very winnable game IMO.
Vikings lose
All good points. The Vikes should have lost today and to the Lions - they got lucky both times. This is another team we should stomp on and never let up for air. This could be the message game to the NFL talking heads that will predict another "Letdown game":
The Rams are for REAL.
It is going to be a low scoring and tight game. These teams are pretty much mirrors of each other in terms of how they're set up. Honestly, I don't see them winning. Until the Rams offense wakes up more, specifically the passing game and converting on 3rd down, I find it hard to see them going on the road and consistently winning games. I think the Vikings win a 13-10 type game. The difference in the game being home field advantage, a mobile qb, and a passing game that is a little more of a threat with the emergence of Diggs. I don't see Foles having a lot of time to throw in this game.
The defense and Gurley are delivering. Gurley has played like the best HB in football and the defense is executing like arguably the best defense in football. The passing offense needs to show up. Minnesota has a great defense and an excellent pass rush. Our OL needs to do their job and Foles needs to make some plays. Won't be an easy game.
Peterson the best RB the Rams will face this year and the Vikings defense is playing extremely well. More players will need to step up other than Austin & Gurley plus it's in Minnesota and it's tough to win a road game.
Defense is ready not sure the offense or offensive line is plus I'm not feeling good about Zuerlein. Defense will need to force a few turnovers in order for the good guys to win.
You know what, they have TO FEAR US. SCREW fearing them. What do we do to prolific offenses? We shut them down!...We play our game, and we win. end of story
We need to make a trade for Calvin Johnson or Alshon jeffery tomorrow then ill say we will win. We not going to beat vikes without a passing game
Are the Vikings really good? Look at their stinker against the Whiners on Monday night, then look at their wins. Barely beat the down and out Bears. Only won by six against the Chiefs and beat up on the lowly Lions twice and the Chargers don't look better. Combined all the teams they beat have won 6 games. Not exactly stellar competition. I think like the Cardinals, we haven't seen who the real Vikings are yet. We're the beginning of them leaving their cupcake schedule behind.
Two reasons I don't like the matchup:
1. Vikes front is very creative and will attack our young OL.
2. Home field will magnify reason number 1.
All that aside the Rams are good enough to go in there and get the W. The Cards game was far more scary due to their offense plus a lesser but opportunistic defense. If the Rams staff has them ready for this one I think it's a 50/50 type game.
I'm not saying we don't need to be prepared or that we won't have a fight or that our offense doesn't need to continue to improve.
The Vikings are not as good as their record. The Rams have beaten two of the top 5 defenses. The Vikings have beaten all teams in the bottom half for points allowed and yards allowed except for the Bears in yards allowed only.
The offenses they stopped to get their defensive ranking are all bottom half except the Chargers at 14 for PPG.
The Vikings are scoring less than 2 PPG more than the Rams and we had the far harder schedule thus far.
The Rams are the better team. This is a should win in my mind.
The defense is what makes the Vikes relevant. The offense can be exposed. For as much love and hype as Bridgewater has received, he's mired in a sophomore slump and simply hasn't built a rapport with his receivers. He's locked in on Diggs and dumps to Rudolph when pressed. Wallace has been invisible and Charles Johnson has been M.I.A as well, he's just getting back to full health to be fair though.
If the defense can keep the clamps on AP, we know where Teddy wants to go with the ball.
Offensively for the Rams it's tough sledding though. Minny is going to play aggressive press coverage and beat on the receivers at the line. Those guys have no problem getting their noses dirty in the run game either. Plus Barr and Kendricks will be working to get up field all game long. The Rams simply have to complete some passes early to keep the defense honest. Zimmer isn't going to be fooled, he knows we're a run first team. The Vikes are giving up 104 a game on the ground. Take away that week one game where they gave up 168 to Hyde (which is a huge outlier) and it's frightening. We'll see what Gurley is made of Sunday.
Their record may be inflated, but at the end of the year it won't matter. I do see the Vikes as direct competition for a Wildcard spot, and if we can't bump them off, we probably don't belong in the big show.
They played Denver close. AP got loose once for half his yards and a TD. I am hopeful Rams are better than that as they have a history of bottling him up. This isn't the defense the Vikings played game one last season, that's for sure.
I don't think the Vikings are any match for the Rams pass rush and secondary. Denver has the #1 sack spot to the Rams #2, in part from this game and 7 sacks. I'm salivating to see what the Rams do.
I'll tell you now, woman-to-woman, that I have zero respect for any woman who would support a man who beats his own child's genitals with a switch. Adrian Peterson is a piece of crap, and when he breaks down, your team will have nothing.
He's averaging 90 yards a game, which is really good, but less than a half a TD a game and just 19th at 4.5 yards per carry. Other than the total yards, that isn't a stud, especially against weak defenses.
His 4 biggest games were Lions twice, Chargers, and Bears. Outside of that he's been below average except a decent game against the Broncos at 81 yards and a TD with 5.1 YPC. The Broncos and Rams are very similar in rushing D, so he can play good Ds sometimes.
Not saying he's not a threat, but he's not having a great season overall and we've had recent success with him.
Strength of schedule: Toughest. Updated 11/2
Rams 3rd
Vikings 24th
http://www.predictionmachine.com/Streng ... -NFL-Teams
I will be embarrassed if the Rams don't win this game. Our defense will play the same in Minnesota, which bodes badly for Teddy Bridgwater AND AP. I think the Cards defense (at their house) is considered legit, and how good were they at stopping Gurley?...and the Packers(in their house), how good were they a stopping Gurley?...the Browns and the Niners (supposedly the only good part about the Niners was their Run D...Pittsburg and Big Ben? I think Ben lasted 3 quarters and their offense scored like 9 points...It's possible that we are relying too much on Gurley and the rest of the Offense is atrophying, but he is such a transcendent talent, it's no wonder.... Necessity will dictate our performance, imo....These players know how big this game is..We will win a low scoring game, and Bridgewater will get knocked silly
It seems to keep coming back to the same thing for me... the passing game simply must improve by a fair margin.
Everything else on this team is in order.
Same anemic passing attack? Makes running harder... few teams in this league win with a one dimensional offense.
Minnesota is the biggest challenge they've faced in three weeks.
I haven't a clue if the Rams are up to this.
I hope they are!
Eh, I think the keys to this game are Foles and Bridgewater. Both have struggled. I think Bridgewater is capable of a lot more. Hopefully, Foles is too.(and is the only one who accomplishes more this weekend)
How do they expect to stop Gurley? No one has done it so far. Not even close. He's as good as AP in his prime already. And our defense is going to beat up on Teddy Bear. As long as the good Rams team shows up, we have a good shot at winning this.
Call me a homer but where the hell do Vikes fans get off talkin sh-t like they're legit?
I definitely want to bust that azz after reading some of those comments.
I did some mulling through their reddit as well, and it may be a small sample size but these guys seem to be riding off wins and not really looking at their team as a whole. Their offense is still garbage and they've barely beaten the bottom of the barrel, but they act like they've already won the Super Bowl. In fact, one poster who proved to be the only sane man there posted that their O is like, two spots better than ours and they all balked and basically said they had no idea their O was so bad. Like.. They weren't watching the team the whole time.
It's kind of weird seeing people be so out of touch with their own team.
We owe them a good stern #### kicking!! Wèek 1 last year needs to be erased with extreme prejudice. 34 to 6 the other way this time!
Their biggest advantage here is being at home. They can keep saying our defense is "pretty good," but I don't think they really understand just how good it has been this year. They haven't come remotely close to facing a defense this talented all year. Bridgewater hasn't seen a pass rush like this his entire career either. Donald is going to be tripled all game.
Ultimately though, I think this young offensive line being on the road doesn't get it done. I understand the "can't stop Gurley" mentality, but it's going to be hard for him to continue to put up numbers every game without literately ANYTHING else from the offense. If you take away his big run against the 49ers, one in which they were in a basic nickle (god knows why?) then he gets 60 that game. I'd like to hope he's good for one of these a game, but teams will start just stacking the box no matter what. It will be up to the Rams to continue to find ways to get him the ball, or take advantage of defense. From everything we've seen the past 2 games, it's pretty obvious they can't. Praying for Foles to come out of this one healthy.
The majority of them were pretty rational and reasonable. Every fan-base has a few of those guys.
what a joke, they barely beat the Bears. You know that team with jay cutler?
ou want to stack the box...boom...screen to Austin.(because that doesn't involve the OL pass blocking)
I wanna absolutely destroy these ####. For all the times they beat us in the 70's. The last two games we played them they crushed us. I think Fish comes out with a vengeance and we go up 14-0 within the first quarter. This game will tell us the future of this team. This is a playoff game already. WE MUST WIN THIS GAME.
Lol you guys crack me up. Hating on a fan base for doing the same thing we do. Besides our D and a few players on O, we are not a good team. Talking up our game while sh!tting on another's who is just about as equal as us is absurd. I understand that's the homer in all of us, but I think this is why a lot of us get really butt hurt off a loss. Ive been trying to keep it level headed and it's a lot less frustrating in the end, trust me.
I picked the Vikings as a play off team this year, they have pieces. Their D is playing well, their O is inconsistent. I for one like Bridgewater quite a bit, not necessarily where he is right now but where I think he will be a couple of years from now.
Big advantage being at home, no idea what the weather is going to be like. I will say this however, in the season opener when SF put pressure on Bridgewater he can go into a box. I see both teams trying to dominate with the run. Tight game with things opening up later in the game. Overall I give our D the edge, their passing game, our running game.
Close game with big playoff implications. If the Rams wins this they are 7-3 at the 10 game mark. I think the Rams beat the Bengals as well.
Foles needs to step up. What does it tell you when opposing fans each week mention how terrible he is?
For the most part they sound a lot like Rams fans. The level headed ones anyways. I think it's best described as level headed optimism. We know what they are capable of doing. And we know they're also capable of blowing it, we just keep rooting for the best.
Point blank I want to beat them and move to 5-3. I just hope we get a good effort from the offense. I believe our defense can limit them. to 20 or less points.
It's going to be an interesting thing to watch. Sure, they like to threaten a double A gap blitz, but we seem to be comfortable with a fullback, running back, and three wide out, and of course Gurley and Tavon are both really dangerous on the outside.
And it's not like we haven't struggled with Peterson on outside runs last year. I'm really excited to see how the this plays out. Both teams are very well coached defensively.
